Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is recognized as an epidemic in several areas of the world, including the United States. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1), a retrovirus, has been identified as an etiologic cause of the disease. HIV-1 was previously identified as Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type III (HTLV-III) and Lymphadenopathy Associated Virus (LAV). The groups at highest risk of infection with HIV-1 include homosexual and bisexual men and abusers of injected drugs. Other predictable high-risk groups are women artificially inseminated with sperm from infected donors and sexual partners of those in the AIDS risk groups. Recipients of blood transfusions, blood products or organs are also at risk of contracting AIDS. There is also evidence that HIV-1 is transmitted heterosexually as a result of sexual contact.
Known therapies are generally limited to regimens designed to treat the opportunistic infections and neoplasias associated with AIDS and its related illnesses. Very few treatments are available, however, which attack the HIV-1 virus, the underlying cause of this often fatal disease. Among the known antiviral drugs, which are believed to merely slow down viral replication and which do not cure the disease, much less prevent reinfection, are azidothymidine (AZT), alpha interferon, gamma interferon, azimexon and isopinosine. Remission of some Kaposi sarcomas has been reported following treatment with alpha interferon, but the other antiviral drugs have not proven effective against HIV-1 infections. Immunomodulators, such as cimetidine and interleukin-2, which are intended to stimulate natural killer cell activity, and indomethacin, an antiinflammatory and prostaglandin inhibitor, have also been reported as useful in the treatment of AIDS. Present methods of treating individuals already infected with HIV-1 are scarce and largely ineffective.